IAEA Inspectors Visit Syria
Source: Al-Manar TV, 20-06-2008
The UN's atomic watchdog is sending a team of top-level experts to Damascus from Sunday to probe allegations of a clandestine nuclear facility in the remote Syrian desert. Inspectors led by the International Atomic Energy Agency's number two, Olli Heinonen, are flying out to examine a building which the United States alleges was a covert nuclear reactor built with North Korea's help, until it was destroyed in an ‘Israeli' air attack last September.
The trip -- from June 22-24 -- was announced by IAEA chief Mohamed El-Baradei at the regular summer meeting of the watchdog's 35-member board of governors earlier this month after the US passed on intelligence suggesting the building was a covert nuclear reactor close to becoming operational.
Damascus has dismissed the allegations as "ridiculous" and insists the edifice was a disused military building. But following the ‘Israeli' bombing, Syria appears to have wiped the destroyed site clean of rubble late last year and erected a new building, making any potential investigation by the IAEA more difficult. Both Syrian President Basshar al-Assad and the country's atomic energy agency chief Ibrahim Othman have pledged Syria's cooperation with the IAEA.
But diplomats in close to the Vienna-based organization have said Damascus is only allowing inspectors to visit the bombed site Al-Kibar, but not two or three other suspect sites that the watchdog is interested in. In an interview with Dubai-based Al Arabiya television this week, El-Baradei said there was no evidence Syria had the skilled personnel or the fuel to operate a large-scale nuclear facility. "We have no evidence that Syria has the human resources that would allow it to carry out a large nuclear program. We do not see Syria having nuclear fuel," El-Baradei said.
The Egyptian-born diplomat said the IAEA only had pictures of a site in Syria bombed by ‘Israel' last year, which resembled a nuclear facility in North Korea.
He reiterated his call on Damascus to cooperate. Washington is nevertheless adamant that the allegations are true.
The UN's atomic watchdog is sending a team of top-level experts to Damascus from Sunday to probe allegations of a clandestine nuclear facility in the remote Syrian desert. Inspectors led by the International Atomic Energy Agency's number two, Olli Heinonen, are flying out to examine a building which the United States alleges was a covert nuclear reactor built with North Korea's help, until it was destroyed in an ‘Israeli' air attack last September.
The trip -- from June 22-24 -- was announced by IAEA chief Mohamed El-Baradei at the regular summer meeting of the watchdog's 35-member board of governors earlier this month after the US passed on intelligence suggesting the building was a covert nuclear reactor close to becoming operational.
Damascus has dismissed the allegations as "ridiculous" and insists the edifice was a disused military building. But following the ‘Israeli' bombing, Syria appears to have wiped the destroyed site clean of rubble late last year and erected a new building, making any potential investigation by the IAEA more difficult. Both Syrian President Basshar al-Assad and the country's atomic energy agency chief Ibrahim Othman have pledged Syria's cooperation with the IAEA.
But diplomats in close to the Vienna-based organization have said Damascus is only allowing inspectors to visit the bombed site Al-Kibar, but not two or three other suspect sites that the watchdog is interested in. In an interview with Dubai-based Al Arabiya television this week, El-Baradei said there was no evidence Syria had the skilled personnel or the fuel to operate a large-scale nuclear facility. "We have no evidence that Syria has the human resources that would allow it to carry out a large nuclear program. We do not see Syria having nuclear fuel," El-Baradei said.
The Egyptian-born diplomat said the IAEA only had pictures of a site in Syria bombed by ‘Israel' last year, which resembled a nuclear facility in North Korea.
He reiterated his call on Damascus to cooperate. Washington is nevertheless adamant that the allegations are true.
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